When Mike “King” Kelly died in 1894, Fred Pfeffer his teammate with the White Stockings from 1883-1886 eulogized him in The Chicago Times:
“He played by intuition, by instinct. Signs were not part of his equipment. Most infielders use signals. Kelly and I never had one. We never tried them. He was alive to every contingency which could come up in a ball game. His wonderful powers of perception enabled him to protect every angle of the game and he would do so. I studied Kel and got so close to him mentally that I knew just what he was liable to do and was always prepared to back him up.
Mike “King” Kelly
“He was the creator and the father of more original fine points than any man who ever stood behind a mask. At the bat, on the base lines, in the coacher’s box, wherever you put Kelly, he was per se, a king. His strongest playing point was that he was always ready. He could take advantage of a misplay which others wouldn’t see until afterward. He was a marvel at base running. By that I do not mean that he had any extraordinary speed, but he out generaled, if I may use the term, the men who were chasing him. He could cut the base and do it in such a manner that he would get away with it.
Fred Pfeffer
“He played the umpire as intelligently as he did the opposing nine. He would make a friend of him, engage his confidence, and in various ways get the best of close decisions.
“He was never guilty of dirty ball playing.”
Baseball History Daily 
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